DISCUSS: What can Leicester City’s Premier League achievements do for midlands football?

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Published:09:37Tuesday 09 February 2016

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Robbie Savage has been splitting opinion across the midlands for decades.

He would often be found splitting his opponent in two with a crunching, occasionally mistimed, tackle during his playing days.

And the former Leicester City and Derby County enforcer opened up a can of worms when assessing the Foxes form, as a pundit.

He claimed that if Claudio Ranieri’s boys in blue win the Premier League this season it would eclipse Nottingham Forest’s 1978 team.

Forest, under Brian Clough, won England’s top tier (then named the First Division) in their first season among the elite.

They also lifted the European Cup in 1979 - and retained it a year later.

Speaking on the ‘Fletch and Sav’ show on BT Sport, on the subject titled ‘If Leicester win PL, is that a greater achievement than Forest in ‘78?’, Savage said: “I think if Leicester win it this year it will be a greater achievement.”

Leicester sit five points clear of Tottenham Hotspur in second after a 3-1 win at Manchester City on Saturday.

Time will tell if Leicester can sustain their form and go on to claim a memorable Premier League crown.

Savage’s former Foxes team-mate, Matt Elliott, weighed in with his views this week as to why he thinks Leicester can upset the odds and win the championship.

“It can happen,” he said. “They’re growing week on week, as long as they keep churning out results and producing performances like they have.

“At the weekend against Man City they were superb and dominated from the off really. Once that first goal went in from Robert Huth they looked like they were going to run out convincing winners.

“That proved to be the case.

“It’s no flash in the pan.

“People are beginning to realising that. The amount of doubters are dwindling week by week and the squad seem to be getting stronger every week.”

But would Leicester winning the Premier League in 2016 - and breaking the dominance of Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United - be an even greater achievement?

And what would it mean for midlands football if they did? Could the midlands dominate the football landscape the same way north-west or London teams have in years gone by?